i lovehate JHB

Keyes Zine Workshop, presented in partnership with Open Window and Johannesburg In Your Pocket and in collaboration with Joburg Photowalkers and LoveJozi

Johannesburg is not a city people feel neutral about. It is loud, complicated, beautiful, exhausting, electric and infuriating, often all at once. This July, the i lovehate JHB zine workshop isn’t trying to resolve that tension. It’s handing you a folded piece of paper and asking you to put it there.

Waiting for you will be pre-folded mini zines, each made from a single A3 sheet in a mix of colours and paper stocks. There’s no template, no brief and no right answer. Just an invitation to make something honest about your relationship with this city. 

The materials are deliberately lo-fi: pens, scissors, glue, brushes, ink and stacks of old magazines. Alongside them are fragments of Joburg itself: maps, skyline photographs and archival images ready to be cut up, collaged and reimagined. Zines have always belonged to people with something to say and no interest in waiting for permission.

When you’ve finished, hang your zine on the clothesline and add your voice to the growing collection. Or take it home, it’s yours either way.

Giveaway

One participant will win a copy of I Love You I Hate You. The winner will be notified via Instagram and must collect from the MESH Club.

About the book

I Love You I Hate You explores the love-hate relationship many people have with Johannesburg. It is a story told in two parts.

The first part is told through images. T-shirts are the core product of Love Jozi, and each range emerged from a specific context. The visuals — graphics and campaign material from the brand’s image archive — trace the city’s narrative through design.

The second is told in words. It features 35 essays describing this complicated relationship. Each contributor was assigned a T-shirt range to inspire their thoughts. The result is a collection grappling with a complex place that evokes competing emotions.